I've been playing through it for about 2 weeks now. I'm maybe half-way through at this point, not including any of the bonus material of course. If you like FFXI though, you will love FFXII. Overall I do like it better than FFX, and the license system is almost like a mix between previous FF games.

All I can say though is that despite the fact that Square/Enix did a great job with the graphics and the system they had to work with, the PS2 is surely showing its' age at points.

That being said, I have to agree about the dungeons.
At least for the most part, the voice overs are descent, except for a few characters.

:lolsign: Man, Abyss is really addicting *laughs*. Like when you go through it once. You probably won't be putting this down anytime soon. And the acting's really good.

Especially when Jade makes his sarcastic remarks in and out of battles. But for FFXII itself. Who knows, it may be interesting to me.

Oh come on...it can't be as bad as the dungeons in Star Ocean 3, can it? I mean, every dungen in SO3 is horrible.

Man, I gotta get me Abyss : /

Finishing up in Tales of the Abyss first. Shouldn't be more than another day or two, just farming for grade and need to beat the optional boss. I don't wanna stop now or I'll never finish. I'm not good at dropping games and picking them back up.

I'm excited though. Day after I mention they didn't have it yet, she called me and said I could come pick one up. I <3 her.

I know, Abyss is a long game. There's times where you would visit towns and dungeons more than once. Which the story constantly changes and keeps gamers at the edge of their "gaming seat".

As for the battles themself. I practically like what Namco Bandai did to it :D.

Eh, gomen ^^;;. I know this' FFXII in all. But I was really excited when I saw on GameSpot or Gaming Age that they said that we would be getting Abyss as well.

For the ones who have already finished the game (gameplay spoiler):

Anyone interested in the future of FF series , check this out

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/742/742013p1.html

It's an interview with FFXII's executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu

Some things important like:

For future titles, it really depends on what type of experience the developer wants to have for that game. As such, it's very possible that you might see a return to the turn-based battle system in the future, although that's not to say the ADB system from FF XII won't show up again.

Thank God, next one should be a la turnbase or i'll freak!

But i love his comment about change and he's right...Final Fantasy has always been about change, or it wouldn't be final fantasy^^

"The change in FFVII to 3D graphics, for example - again there were a lot of people in the company who felt that if it's not 2D, then it's not Final Fantasy. Ultimately though, it's this addition of new things and overcoming the challenges to introduce them that, in a way, is a part of the series
itself".

Lots of other things like complaints about the character design etc...

enjoy

Why am I stuck with the stupid Walmart? "Uhh no we don't have that strategy guide, we don't carry guides. Oh and what game did you want? What's it on? No we don't carry that game either."

-.-

Well, on the bright side I am not giving my money to Walmart.

Soapy, yes, why are you choosing Walmart? Are they the only store near your area that will have the game for sale*, so no EB Games/ Gamestop?

*Given that they will have it come the 31st.

I'm still undecided in purchasing the guide or not. If the DVD has about the same artwork as the guide will, then I don't see the point; that's the only reason I'm interested in it, anyway, since I tend to avoid guides or FAQs for major releases, since I like to try and figure things out on my own.

Next week some guys are coming over to remove all the upstairs carpeting and replace them with wooden tiles. My room is up first, and by sheer painful coincidence, they're scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. This means no access to my room for a day, possibly more. And even if they finish, I'll have to move my giant TV and other equipment to a new mega-shelf my parents are planning to get for me this weekend.

So with all that in mind, I think I might end up using HD Loader to play this game early. Possibly today. In like a few minutes. Waiting until the official release is one thing, but I'll be damned if I have to wait past that.

I'll get back to you on my decision.

If you decide to get the guide, get it from Amazon. It's $11 so if you have something else to get order that too and get the free shipping.

This is what I'm doing: FFXII guide + Zelda:TP (since Gamestop is so gay and won't take reservations now) = Win for Me

Yeah, thats to be expected from a store that sells everything known to man. Apparently my guide won't be in until monday (damn!). I guess thats what I get for going through walmart.... But its still cheap, and I won't be getting the actual game until tuesday anyway.

Just another sales heads up but Fry's will also be selling the regular edition of FFXII for $37.99 next Wednesday along with Circuit City.

Oh, oh, I keep forgetting to ask this, but is the game a blue disc? I doubt it is 'cause I haven't seen any S-E game so far that was, but I just want to make sure. My PS2 doesn't play them anymore.

And since we were talking about Abyss earlier, is that a blue disc?

Abyss looks like a standard DVD.

Looks like online orders are starting to arrive. Mashing over at GAF received his copy from EB/GameStop.com today:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ng/FFXII_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ng/FFXII_2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ng/FFXII_3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ng/FFXII_4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ng/FFXII_5.jpg

So chances are even if your order says "Processing" it may of shipped and if it didn't arrive today then it may well arrive tomorrow or Monday.

Content on the bonus DVD seems to be as follows:
Developer Interviews
Directors
Story & Translation
Battle System
Art Design
Music

The History of Final Fantasy

Promotional Trailers
E3 2004
Destination Playtstation 2005
E3 2005
Demo Trailer

Art Gallery
Illustrations
Moogles
Espers
Concept Art
Airships
Characters

Guys, I checked up the BEST BUY flyer today for next weeks sales. It looks like the Canadian Best Buys are having the regular game selling at $49.99 CDN for a 3 day price (October 31st to November 2nd only), and to top it off, they're giving away free ART BOOKs, while supplies last. The webcode on the flyer is 10081022.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../BESTBUYAD.jpg

EDIT: Interesting that the webcode on the website is "10075779" instead of the flyers that I have in my hand.

Yeah the Best Buys here are doing the same thing. It's supposed to be a mini artbook though but still not bad for a freebie.

Curious as to how big the disc space is for the game. Just one disc? For a 100+ hour game? Impressive.

Damn, I preordered mine over at EBGames.com and it still says 'processing'. Ah well, I'll get it soon enough. Kain, it might be a DVD-9 if the game really is that big.

It better be. FFX was at 4.18 gigs. This thing better be at least 6 gigs.

You still might be in luck as those who preordered on EBgames/GameStop.com and received their copies still have a status of "Processing" on their order. :)

1UP.com now has their review up for FFXII:
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3154731

Whoa, seriously? I preordered way back in August, so there shouldn't be any problem right? I might get it on Monday, I doubt there will be a delivery during the weekend.

It's about 3-4GB, I don't really remember, but its one of those. The packed one was only 2 so it's not really that big. Most of the gameplay time is from dungeons anyways, which don't really require much space. And I believe textures take less space than polygons. If you don't remember, they lowered the polygons a lot for this game and just really upped the textures.